As a poker film, Casino Royale is better than Rounders, miles better than Maverick, but not as good as The Cincinnati Kid. Nothing is as good as The Cincinnati Kid.

In Ian Fleming's original novel, James Bond attempts to bankrupt Le Chiffre - a shadowy financier of international terrorism - at the baccarat table. To give the movie a modern twist, the game has been changed to poker. This is in keeping with 21st-century fashion, but the characters are still dressed for baccarat, in tailored dinner jackets. If only poker players really wore those clothes, instead of old tracksuits covered in soup.

But Bond doesn't seem to play a brilliant game. There aren't many borderline decisions. He gets lucky in a couple of situations where the hands are so big they play themselves, and he puts $10m into one pot where he must be losing. When M tells Bond that he is her only choice to beat Le Chiffre because he is "the greatest player in the service", it made me think, "Hmmm, I'd like to get in the game at MI6."

But this film avoids the mistakes traditionally made in poker scenes on screen. One old chestnut is when a player pulls out his car keys mid-hand, and tries to throw them into the pot. Here, a dealer points out that this is against the rules. And there is a nice trick played with a "tell", which undercuts the flaw at the heart of Rounders - a film that asks us to believe John Malkovich, supposedly the best player in New York, always eats a biscuit when he's bluffing.

I also loved the break during the game where James Bond goes upstairs, kills a couple of Ugandan hostage takers, showers off the blood, changes his shirt and comes back down to play. That kind of thing always happens in the tournament breaks at Walsall.